Battle Tree strategies

[Coru]

After playing the battle tree, I was surprised that I couldn't find a thread on here discussing the battle tree and the strategies people use and the things that have happened to them in there, so here's where we can share what worked out well and talk about how unfair some of the trainers are haha.

I'm not much of a competitive player but this has made me think a lot about sets and strategies, purely because I want bp for the items they sell and I really want to battle against Cynthia. I always used to struggle with the Battle Tree as I would get infuriatingly stupid trainers with the worst strategies ever. I've been against so many stalling teams, poison/protect teams and flinching teams, and those really annoy me, because I don't really see them as a valid way to play personally because it's just a waste of time and a bit of a cop-out. I've now had to start doing it myself just to get through those types of trainers. Now I've got used to their strategies and have a vague idea of how they all work, I can now advance quite far in the battle tree. I still haven't finished the regular battle tree yet but I recently got to facing red, which was a huge disappointment.

All Red did when I battled him was send out his Venusaur, leech seed me, toxic me, use ingrain and then spam synthesis. It had no attacking moves, just healing moves and status afflicting moves. This was a huge disappointment because I wanted the battle with Red to be quite fast paced and fun, but instead, he defeated my whole team by using annoying tactics that basically created a wall that even my max attack boost mimikyu and my Garchomp couldn't break. Why do tactics like that exist, it makes me want to throw my DS at a wall haha.

However, I have created a team that for myself works quite well in single battles and has quite a lot of coverage, just need to figure out how to use it or change it to defeat Red.
My lead is a Mimikyu sweeper
Mimikyu
Ability: Disguise
Item: Red Card
Moves:
Shadow Sneak
Feint Attack
Play Rough
Swords Dance

I spam swords dance until my disguise is busted unless the opponent blocks me from using it some way or another and then I usually go for Play Rough as it is a quite powerful move overall and with two sword dances, it can usually sweep a team. I have Shadow Sneak for priority and the red card to stop Pokemon from setting up against my Mimikyu by switching them out after breaking my disguise. I find that this is very effective and allows mimikyu to sweep very well.

I then have a Garchomp. It doesn't really have a distinct role in the team but is more of just a supporting Pokemon, giving power to revenge kill and help with switch ins.
Garchomp
Ability: Rough Skin
Item: Rocky Helmet
Moves:
Sandstorm
Fire Blast
Earthquake
Dragon Tail

The ability and Item allow it to take out 1/3 of a pokemon's health when it uses a physical move instantly and the moves fire blast and earthquake add power. Sandstorm is a nice move to add a bit of regular damage and Dragon Tail is nice to stop sweepers and Pokemon from setting up whilst also getting off some damage.

I then have my Special Defence tank Tapu Fini
Tapu Fini
Ability: Misty Surge
Item: Leftovers
Moves:
Aqua Ring
Scald
Protect
Calm Mind

I use Fini to stall Pokemon out and managed to stall out a Salamence when I was struggling and it worked perfectly. Aqua Ring gives it double recovery with leftovers and protect allows it to heal itself up by almost half health by missing an attack. Calm Mind also increases it's already high special defence whilst increasing it's special attack and increasing the scald power. Scald also gives is STAB and a chance to burn the opponent, making it hard to try and out stall fini.

Have you guys found a very successful strategy? and have you had any really frustrating battles in the battle tree?

[Blaquaza]

Part of the reason I haven't mentioned the Battle Tree myself is because honestly... I haven't participated in it yet. I did beat Blue, but apart from that I never did anything at the Battle Tree apart from speaking to the IV Judging person to upgrade my PC. What I have heard though is that Alolan Muk is apparently a surprisingly good Pokémon to use in the Battle Tree. Considering that was before the release of Pokémon Bank, I'm not sure if it still holds true now, but it certainly did until at least a few weeks ago.

[Corey]

I've been using Tapu Lele and Mega Alakazam with great success! Super Doubles is pretty challenging, but this duo can pretty much take just about anyone out. The remaining two members are interchangeable, so I usually use Delphox and Primarina because they're favorites of mine and provide a lot of coverage (as well as learning Psychic, which hits like a truck under Psychic Terrain no matter who it's from).

[MC Elesa]

My little brother and I do Super Multi-Battle where he uses Garchomp w/Rough Skin and Flying Silvally. Meanwhile I use Sandstorm Gigalith and Buzzwole. It is pretty fun because sometimes he will have Garchomp use Earthquake and I will use Protect on Gigalith. That way we can hit both Pokemon and get a knockout.

The best part is that Gigalith has Weakness Policy so sometimes I will get hit with an attack it is weak to and just take knockouts by using Rock Slide. So sometimes his Garchomp would use Protect and I will get Weakness Policy up to hit with a super boosted Rock Slide to take out some Pokemon. Gyarados from full doesn't like that.

Our best moment in the Battle Tree was against Cynthia and Dexio. Cynthia's Lucario would Mega Evolve and normally would sweep both Garchomp and Gigalith. So we decide to have both of our Pokemon to use Earthquake. After all, one of our Pokemon could survive getting Close Combat. Well, Cynthia's Mega Lucario used Close Combat to take out my brother's Garchomp. Meanwhile, Dexio's Passimian did Close Combat on Gigalith but didn't knock it out. The big old rock took the hit with only 27 HP remaining and just used Earthquake to knock out but Passimian and Mega Lucario. It was beautiful.

Flying Silvally and Buzzwole are both clean up attackers. Flyvally has so many coverage moves that we use it to cover anything that we don't like. Buzzwole has Assault Vest to tank hits and just keep on hitting.